The 3rd season of the Pandanet Go European Team Championship has begun, with the UK team again in League B. The team is largely the same as before, but at the top features the addition of Vanessa Wong 6d, current European Women's Champion, who will hopefully help us improve on our position of 5th place last season.

Unfortunately our campaign got off to a bad start, losing 0-4 to Austria.

Vanessa had to drop out so new team member Martha McGill stepped up to play on board 4 against Jürgen Suntinger.

The erstwhile Shrewsbury Tournament was moved to a country location this year, the little village of Hinstock, just south of Market Drayton. The Memorial Hall proved to be a spacious and pleasant venue, and it should be even better next year when the extension has been completed.

Matthew Cocke, 5d Epsom, was the only one of the 32 players at Swindon to win three games. He beat Alex Kent, 2d Durham, in the last round.

Results

After a second exciting game - taking 6hr20mins, mostly of Nick Krempel's thinking - Andrew Kay has prevailed for a second game in the British Go Championship Title Match and emerges as the 2012 British Go Champion. Many congratulations to him, and to Nick on coming in second for a second year running.

We owe our thanks to Epsom Go Club who lent kit for this second title match, and Nick Krempel whose equipment was used in the first game; to Maria Tabor and me for refereeing/relaying, and to Francis Roads, Nick Wedd and Alex Rix for offering to referee if needed.

Toby Manning, 2d, won the Cornish Open by beating Tony Atkins in the final. David Cantrell, 6k, from London won 3/3. The previous day there was a teaching session run by Ian Marsh, Toby Manning and Tony Atkins, and in the afternoon there was the handicap tournament won by Peter Harold-Barry, 5k, from St Albans. He beat local player Paul Massey, 1k, in the final. 20 players in all took part.

Open Results and Lightning Handicap Results

2011 winner Richard Moulds, 3k from Manchester, was again the winner in 2012, winning all 3 games. There were 20 players in total at the one day tournament in sunny, dry Stockport. Other winners, also with 3 wins, were Brian Timmins, 9k from Shrewsbury, and Kathleen Timmins, 14k from Shrewsbury.

Results

Congratulations to Vanessa on her latest win, in Brno, Czech Republic!

Alison Bexfield reports that Vanessa won all five of her games and will now receive a place at the 2nd SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing in December. It was a "great venue beside a lake."

Second was Rita Pocsai from Hungary and third was Natalia Kovaleva from Russia.

Alison finished with 2 wins from the 5 games.

Results (off-site)

For those that weren't able to observe the 1st round of the Title Match on KGS 8th September - between Nick Krempel and Andrew Kay:

Congratulations to Andrew Kay for winning the 1st round of the 3 round Title Match.

Andrew Kay took black in Nigiri, and ended up wining the game by Resignation after a dramatic fight for a collection of white stones - this was played over a 5 hour game, with approximately 120 moves played.

A live audio review took place on KGS by Alexander Dinerchtein (breakfast), and there will be an SGF review for the game + photos that will be published on the BGA site as soon as they are sent out to us (after tomorrow).

Next year's European Go Congress is to be held in Poland.

The BGA has been allocated 4 discount vouchers (100€, 50€, 2 x 25€) to be awarded to people who may wish to attend but are in a position of financial hardship.

However, if you are awarded a voucher, you need to enter the Congress by December 15 this year.

If you believe you qualify, and wish to apply for a voucher, please contact Toby Manning. All applications will be treated in confidence.

More information about the EGC is here.

Vanessa Wong has been awarded a 6 dan certificate by the BGA, following her excellent performance at the second World Mind Sports Games in Lille.